On Dec 11th Green Cross performed in Madrid, during CoP 25, an impact event “Facing natural resources scarcity – focus on water-related topics, way forward, priorities, keys for action”. Sopra Steria hosted and actively participated to this impact event, with the contribution of the following panelists: Jean-Michel Cousteau (GCFT President – video message), Jean-Claude Curell (Green Cross Spain), Ania Freindorf (photojournalist – Naked Glaciers), Nicolas Imbert (GCFT director), Jean-Charles Lardic (Ville de Marseille), Birgitta Liss Lymer (director Water Resources of Siwi and Source to Sea coordinator), Antonio Peñalver Grau (Sopra Steria Spain CEO), Siva Niranjan (Sopra Steria Head of Sustainability) and Pierre Victoria (Veolia Sustainabiliy director).
The panels and presentation were rich in vision and experience-sharing, insisted on both the urgency to act accordingly to the biodiversity, climate and water emergency and the fact multiple successful return on experiences demonstrate that the journey for enhanced systemic water management is not only possible, but also effective in terms of social, economic and environment impact.
The artwork projection from Ania Freindorf “Naked Glaciers” illustrated from the really source the vulnerability of the natural water system.
The overall view was that businesses across sectors, public sector and civil society organizations needs to come together and work in cohesive way to bring to market, viable solutions focused on enabling water and sanitation for the deprived millions in the developing nations and embracing circular economy for water for developed nations as a matter of priority.
From the conference outcomes, Green Cross is excerpting 8 proposals for decisions-makers, to deal effectively with water scarcity in 2020:
- Proposal 1: better encompass water in NDC development methodology and report them accordingly at CoP 26 (Dec 2020 in Glasgow),
- Proposal 2: refer to SDG as The framework for water report, management, and conservation,
- Proposal 3: develop aggressively water resource management – including water footprint – in a systemic and result-oriented perspective,
- Proposal 4: Focus on water quality in the context of human and ecosystems health and perform timely-managed remediation actions,
- Proposal 5: Make circular economy relying of water efficiency, remediation, scarcity management and quality in all activities
- Proposal 6: Invest and cooperate in water circularity
- Proposal 7: Perform a regulation shock to promote – and not over constraint – water circularity, effective usage and proper management, and initiate on water a juridical transition
- Proposal 8: Meet the climate and environment emergency, empowering a quick shift from water scarcity to water resilience in a short timeframe.
The event has been organized by Green Cross in partnership with Sopra Steria, and with the support of ARIS Bioenergies, GLISPA, IOWater, the Monaco Chamber for Renewable Energies and the Environment and OREE.
The 8 proposals are UN registrered (as a SDG voluntary commitment under reference #39046), , shared with CoP 25 delegations, organisations and observers, and reviewed in the context of EarthX 2020 (April, Dallas), IUCN World Congress (June, Marseilles), Biodiversity CoP 15 (September, Beijing) and CoP 26 (December, Glasgow). Green Cross will also actively work them out in all our project, activities, the platform and network we are involved in. Green Cross will also encourage all their partners and the network they are involved in to adopt and report on these proposals.
